Asking for the Moon

Many tales have been told by Reginald Hill about his renowned mid-Yorkshire detectives, Dalziel and Pascoe. But until now the long-anticipated story of the duo's first reluctant encounter has been withheld. Finally, here for the first time, "The Last National Service Man" recounts the alarming circumstances that brought them face-to-face (closer, actually) and nearly cost young Peter Pascoe his life. But this is only the first novella in a gathering of four of their most unusual adventures. A crusty and forthright sergeant once gave the detectives a bit of valuable advice: "Leave ghosts to them that understands them. You stick to crime." Yet in "Pascoe's Ghost," Pascoe boldly investigates the fate of a woman whom no one has seen for a year - except her brother, who claims her ghost is haunting him. And "Dalziel's Ghost" finds the portly inspector surprisingly willing to keep nightly vigil at isolated Sandstone Rigg farmhouse, tracking a ghost reportedly unearthed by recent renovations. Perhaps it is fitting that a volume opening with Dalziel and Pascoe's first case should end with "One Small Step," which could be their last. The year is now 2012. Pascoe is Commissioner of Eurofed Justice, while Dalziel is deep into retirement and reluctant to emerge. Both, however, are called upon to deal with a case quite unique in two particulars. First, it concerns the first man to be murdered on the moon. What's more, there are precisely two hundred twenty-seven million witnesses to the crime.